Geocaching

The family has found a new hobby and it's called Geocaching. It has been around for a while, both Stacey and I have heard of it, but never really understood what it was all about and what the craze was. Know we know!!

For those of you who may not know what Geocaching is, Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. When you arrive at the destination, you use your GPS device to assist you in finding the hidden geocache. They may be at your a local park, at the end of a long hike, underwater or on the side of a city street. When you find it, you sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location. Then you share your geocaching stories and photos online. There are currently over a dozen "cache types" in geocaching, with each cache type being a different variation of the game. People can put little prizes in their cache, but if you take a prize, you have to put something in its place.

During last week's twins club meeting, the Pierce triplet boys gave a presentation about Geocaching. They explained how it worked, what you need to do, etc. Stacey came home that night and was telling me all about it and we decided to give it a try over the weekend. We both read about it online and Stacey downloaded the app onto her smart phone. Off we went to begin our new adventure in Geocaching. We were out playing this game for about 4 hours on Saturday. We found 2 'caches' out of 5 locations. We loved it so much, we went back out again on Sunday. The Wheeler family joined us for the day. Out of 7 locations, we found 5 'caches'. We all have so much fun, that we decided we would do a some geocaching each weekend. I think we are going to try downtown Fredericksburg next.

We are heading up to Vermont in a few weeks for our Spring Break and we told the kids that we will Geocache along the way and make at least one stop in each state we drive through. We are definitely hooked on this! It is so much fun; the kids really enjoyed it; and best of it, it's also FREE!!!......

We are going to put a 'cache' here in our neighborhood and when we get to Vermont, we are going to put one in my old hometown! Can't wait. Below are some pictures of the adventures we had! If you are intersted, go to www.geocaching.com

Kids at Salamander Loop - our fourth location, but no luck finding the cache:



Broughton-Wheeler Kids at our first find of the day!


(Note: the cache is in the tree next to Jack's head! - it was a little camoflauge bison container. It was hard to find, but we found it!)

Sweet Caroline

Stacey and I feel like over the course of these last few months, we have gradually seen Caroline grow into her own and become more confident and independent. Aside from school, she is keeping herself extremely busy with three different extra cirricular activities. Girl Scouts, Tap-Ballet, and Cheer; all of which have helped her grow in such an amazing way!

Girl Scouts: Caroline has been able to develop her full individual potential by increasing her skills and understanding of respect toward others; development of her leadership skills, and cooperation with others.




Tap-Ballet: Caroline started tap-ballet a few years ago, but then took a break to pursue a few other things. However, this past Fall, she expressed interest in getting back into tap-ballet and now is in her second season. Since January, the girls have been working on a routine that they will perform during a May recital. Stacey videotaped last week's session and it was amazing to watch Caroline do her moves. We can't wait until the recital.

Cheer: A cheer/gynamastics place opened up here in the county a few months ago and it has been nothing but positive for both our girls. Caroline has been doing some great things we didn't know she could do. Just yesterday during her cheer session, she was hoisted up by her instructors and she did great!





We really believe that being involved in each of these activities have helped her spread her wings and become more confident in who she is. She certainly has blossomed over the past few months and am glad she is enjoying each of these activities so much. We hope she continues these activities this year because we have seen what a positive influence these have had on her.

We can't wait to see how this amazing young girl develops in the coming years into an extraordinary person! We are so proud of her and know she will do great things. We love you Caroline.

Garden Maddness

It's March 1st and we hope to be starting this year's garden this weekend! Stacey and I spent some time last week getting our bed ready and we even drew a schematic of what we plan to grow this year. We learned a lot from last year and hope that this year's harvest will be much better. Now that we have a year under our 'green thumb' so to speak, we should have better luck this year.

We are pretty excited, because although it's only March, we can start with some cold weather crops like broccoli and lettuce. We've learned all about companion gardening which talks about what plants grow well together and which ones don't do well if planted next to eachother. It has definitely been a learning experience for sure, but it has also been a lot of fun and we enjoy hanging out there with our neighbors. Plus, we feel that it provides a great learning experience for the kids too. They enjoy helping....

I will have to say though, gardening is also very time-consuming. How on earth did our ancestors do this all year round before the dawn of the industrial revolution?! LOL..... It's very rewarding to see the fruits of our labor grow and put on our plates.

Now that we have learned a bit more, we plan on growing more produce this year than we did last year. Especially now that we know about crop rotation and spreading out what you plant throughout the year. Makes so much more sense......

Our bed is 4x20 which actually provides enough space to grow what we want and if this year is anything like last year, we will have plenty! We also want to learn about canning and proper freezing so we don't end up wasting anything we grow.

It's going to be a good year! Happy Planting!!!!